This invention relates to a ball and socket bearing wherein the ball is nonrotatably securable on a support and the socket is free to rotate, and more particularly to a ball and socket bearing including a replaceable ball that has an outer spherical bearing surface with truncated flat portions and that is nonrotatably securable on a support.
A two part ball and socket bearing assembly is known from British Patent 554879 by Fredrick George Milles accepted Jul. 22, 1943 wherein a self aligning ball is removably mounted in an outer socket. In this prior art bearing assembly the socket has an annular opening and the ball includes flats extending in planes that are spaced parallel to a cylindrical bore in the ball to provide a reduced outer diameter that will permit the ball to be placed into the socket opening and turned 180.degree. to seat the ball with its cylindrical bore coaxial with the axis of the annular opening in the socket. In this prior art bearing design the ball is always free to rotate about its bore relative to the support shaft it is mounted on which is disadvantageous in some bearing applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,424 by Narkon et al. issued Jun. 27, 1989 discloses a self aligning three part track roller assembly comprising a fixed inner spherical ball without insertion flats and a two piece outer race subassembly and which is axially separable to allow the spherical ball to be inserted into and removed from the outer race when it is disassembled. This three part bearing is complex and expensive to manufacture and its assembly and disassembly for replacement purposes is not quick and convenient.